Summary: Max distracts Vecna while Eddie and Dustin distract the bats but Robin, Steve, and Nancy get caught by the vines. Mike’s group make a bathtub for El in the freezer of a Surfer Boy Pizza restaurant. El is able to find Max and saves her, fighting Vecna. Vecna overpowers El and starts to kill Max but El breaks out and defeats him. Nancy, Steve, and Robin defeat Vecna. Lucas is confronted by Jason and is unable to save Max. Max dies and an enormous gate opens in Hawkins, causing an Earthquake which kills Jason. El brings Max back but she’s comatose. Eddie, having been attacked by bats, dies while doing his distraction. Joyce, Murray, and Hopper return to the prison and kill all of the remaining monsters. Yuri and Dmitri provide an airlift and they get away safely. Everyone reunites in Hawkins, but the enormous gate remains open and Vecna has survived.
The Good: When the plan finally gets underway, it’s pretty fun to watch. Max luring in Vecna is a gripping sequence that has the uncertainty of success, and Eddie playing Master of Puppets as a distraction was awesome. Vecna’s scenes with El are pretty strong, especially how Vecna makes her feel despair. Mike giving her the motivation to keep going is an effective moment that finally gives Mike something to do in the season. Eddie’s death and Max’s coma gives the episode a sense of loss. Their final scenes are sad and impactful. Gaten Matarazzo in particular shines in his scenes grieving Eddie. Eddie finally becoming a hero as he died was predictable but no less effective. It was the perfect way to cap off his arc. The twist of the enormous gate opening was a surprise and it promises something hugely different for the final season. The closing scenes of the episode are fine and offer a decent resolution for the characters and the journeys they just went through. The Bad: The first hour of this episode was a chore. It’s over-indulgent because every scene feels drawn out. In place of a suspense-driven plot, we get interrupted with lengthy scenes of character interaction which fail to do anything of interest. This makes the pacing of the episode disjointed and frustrating, and the episode feels like a slog. The second half is also plagued with flaws. It has exciting moments, but there are too many storylines and too many characters to intercut between. We take forever to follow up again with some characters when they are in the middle of intense situations. Then after everything, the climax disappoints because it is another long, drawn out sequence that tested my patience. I don’t like the decision to have the Russia story stay permanently separated. Outside of a few moments, it was entirely uninteresting to follow and its relevance is extremely limited. Its only purpose is to bring Hopper back, which should have taken just one episode. Instead we’ve wasted a whole season on it. El being able to reverse death is kind of silly and damages the stakes of the show. The Unknown: What are the consequences of the enormous new gate opening? Did nobody notice this somehow? How is it that people have not found it? What happened to Murray, Yuri, and Dmitri? What happened with the military? They didn’t appear at all in this episode. What about Dr. Owens? Will Max wake up? Will she be back to normal or will she have some permanent damage? Best Moment: Eddie’s guitar performance was an epic spectacle. Character of the Episode: Eddie. Conclusion: This was too damn long. A lot of stuff here was pretty good, but the pacing and the exhaustive length turned this into a much tougher watch. Score: 55
0 Comments
Summary: Vecna gives Nancy visions of the future before she wakes. The group come up with a plan to fight Vecna and get weapons from a store called The War Zone and have an encounter with Jason. Max, Lucas, and Erika enter the Creel house to begin their plan. El learns that her friends are going to fight Vecna and tries to leave but Brenner doesn’t allow it. The military attacks the base and Brenner tries to smuggle El out but is shot down in the process. El defeats the military with her powers and is reunited with Mike when the group finds her. Hopper, Murray, and Joyce escape from the prison and Yuri offers to ride them back to America on his helicopter but he needs to fix it.
The Good: Everything involving El and Brenner was pretty good, and we got a satisfying resolution to their story as Brenner dies without El giving him any satisfaction because he did not deserve it. There are good layers to that scene. The helicopter crash scene was visually spectacular and a great moment. There were some other strong scenes. Nancy’s experience with Vecna at the start is suitably scary. Her encounter with Jason in the gun store was a surprising burst of tension that I greatly enjoyed. Noah Schnapp gave a good performance as he was there for Mike while obviously being conflicted by his own feelings for him. The Bad: The LA and Russia storylines have been a slog this season. I’m waiting for them to connect with the main story because they don’t have me interested right now. The Russians having a Demogorgon isn’t a surprise, but I have no idea how they ever managed to contain it with their terrible security. It’s embarrassingly bad. All of the scenes that slow down the plot to address love stories haven’t worked this season. They are cheesy, predictable, and uninteresting. The Unknown: Is there another gate in Russia? What plan did they come up with to fight Vecna? Will Jason get involved with this somehow? Will Yuri’s helicopter be good enough to get Hopper, Joyce, and Murray out of Russia? Best Moment: El standing up to Brenner and telling him that he’s the real monster. Character of the Episode: El. Conclusion: A solid episode of table-setting with an emotional edge from all of the El/Brenner stuff. Score: 65 Summary: Steve is saved from the bats. The group find a way to communicate with Dustin and head to another gate where Chrissy was killed to escape. They manage to get out, but Vecna entraps Nancy. The kids are interrogated by the cops but they escape to help Steve, Nancy, Eddie, and Robin. El continues through her memories and learns that Ballard was One, Victor’s son, and also Vecna. El freed him from his restraints and he massacred everyone, but then El banished him to the Upside Down and forgot everything. Murray and Joyce get into the prison as Hopper and Dmitri fight the Demogorgon. Murray and Joyce give Hopper and Dmitri an escape and Joyce reunites with Hopper.
The Good: El’s story impressed me in the end. I made a few guesses about Ballard, but I did not tie everything together. I expected that One was Vecna, but I was surprised that Ballard was One, that he was responsible for the massacre, that El banished him, and that he was Victor Creel’s son. The reveals were plentiful, surprised me, and answered so many of my questions in satisfying ways. We even learn how the first gate was created! I was thrilled by all of this, and I’m glad to see that “Stranger Things” opted to create a three-dimensional villain this season, someone with differing beliefs, a clear motive, and a fascinating relationship with a main character. I love the added layers to Vecna’s villainy, and it sets up the end of the season to be a dramatic thrill ride. The scenes with the main group are fun. It’s enjoyable to see them communicate with each other, and the show had some fun with the magically suspended rope. I liked the reveal that Vecna could open gates, mainly because the characters’ reactions to it were hilarious. The Russian story had an exciting climax as Hopper and Dmitri battle the Demogorgon, which looked fantastic and was horrifying with its killing ability. Murray impersonating Yuri was a delight and there was some good suspense in his interactions with the Russians. The Bad: The only big issue I have is that this episode is enormous. It certainly could have been trimmed down. The rest are small things that detract from the story. The opening scene should be intense, but it isn’t because it’s filled with character quipping which undersells the danger. I’m also confused why these creatures didn’t immediately inform Vecna of their presence. This season is trying way too hard to shove Steve/Nancy down our throats, and it is way too much. None of their scenes are good. There is still plenty of incompetence, mostly from the Russians, the cops, and the parents. How is it that Vecna was immediately able to get to Nancy when he had to wait before fully trapping everyone else? There are some moments where the show cuts away from a storyline for a long time during a really suspenseful moment. That disrupted the flow of the episode. The Unknown: Why is the Upside Down stuck in the time period of Will’s disappearance? Why did Vecna take so long to make his move? What happened to him when El sent him to the Upside Down? Will Nancy survive her current experience with Vecna? Will the others be able to help her? Did the military learn El’s location? Best Moment: Vecna’s speech that slowly revealed the truth about everything. Character of the Episode: Vecna. Conclusion: This was a good midseason finale with a huge twist at the end that elevates it significantly. One of the show’s very best episodes, even with its length. Score: 67 Summary: After Patrick’s death, Eddie is officially announced as a wanted man. The Hawkins group see that Eddie’s location has been compromised and they meet him at Skull Rock. Dustin realizes there is a gate nearby which they track to Lover’s Lake. Cops show up and get the kids, while Steve, Nancy, Eddie, and Robin end up going through the gate. Steve is attacked by bats. El continues to go through her memories and after seeing that she was bullied by the other kids, realizes that she murdered them. The LA group gets to Suzie’s house and track down El’s location. Hopper, Dmitir, and others are prepared to fight the Demogorgon. Murray and Joyce prepare to infiltrate the prison with Murray posing as Yuri.
The Good: This episode does a lot of things right. The ending sequence is dramatic and intense as the walls close in on the group at the lake, and having half of them in the Upside Down and half captured by cops is a good shake-up in the narrative. Jason is better defined as a character after witnessing Patrick’s death. I didn’t buy into how vengeful he was before, but it makes more sense now that he witnessed something awful firsthand. He’s still not written well (see: The Bad), but he’s more plausible. The Russia story was more enjoyable in this episode. Seeing Murray and Joyce messing with Yuri is surprisingly entertaining. The reveal of Hopper’s plan at the end of the episode was delightful and true to the character. I’ve come to enjoy his dynamic with Dmitri. I appreciate that El’s past parallels her experience with the bullies in her high school. The Bad: Again, this episode suffers from being too long and from being plot-heavy, falling into a lot of this show’s typical trappings of cheesiness, lazy plot development, and predictable storytelling. Jason’s speech to the community is so bad. It’s unfathomable that the police wouldn’t immediately shut him up, and it’s even stupider that people would believe this kid who sounds like he’s out of his mind. Seriously, is there nobody that questions Jason’s hilarious logic of Hellfire Club being a cult, seeing that he has zero proof? Stupid stuff like this hurts the story badly. Suzie’s house feels like it belongs in a cartoon, not a TV show based on the real world. Everything about that storyline was bad, from the over-the-top kid characters to the laughable “hacking” scenes. El’s bullying in the past doesn’t work for the same reason it doesn’t in the present. It’s so cheesy, and the fact that it’s even happening in such a tightly controlled lab is absurd. The scientists look like morons for allowing cameras to go off, and for not soundproofing the walls. El’s discovery at the end of the episode doesn’t have much emotional impact, particularly because we already knew what happened ages ago. The Unknown: Who was One? What happened to him? Is he responsible for Vecna? Thematically it makes sense since Vecna seems to be empowered by the traumatic memories of his victims, similar to how One gets his power. How did the gate open in the lake? Is Steve going to survive this attack? Will the others save him? How will the kids interact with the cops? What will they say? Best Moment: The reveal that Hopper was preparing a plan to kill the Demogorgon was a nice twist that was in-line with the character. Character of the Episode: Hopper. Conclusion: Another flawed episode, but this one had better drama and more excitement compared to the last one. Score: 58 Summary: El is taken to Nevada where she meets Dr. Brenner who will help her restore her powers. She’s forcibly apprehended and sent into her old memories. El tries to escape and her powers start to return. Mike, Jonathan, Will, and Argyle bury the agent that was with them and receive a phone number to find El. They head to see Suzie, in need of a hacker. Nancy determines that Vecna was in the Creel house in Max’s experience. The group explores the Creel house and find Vecna in the attic. At the same time, Jason’s group checks out Reefer Rick’s place and finds Eddie. Eddie escapes into the water and is chased, but Jason stops when Patrick is suddenly killed by Vecna. Hopper grows closer with Dmitri after being imprisoned with him. Joyce and Murray break out from Yuri’s imprisonment on the plane and it crashes.
The Good: The scenes with El are pretty interesting. It’s creepy how she can’t escape her memories, and these scenes are done well. It’s interesting to see everyone combing for clues in Victor’s house and there is some suspense there. Jason finding Eddie, and Patrick’s death was a dramatic climax to the episode. The Bad: The worst episodes of “Stranger Things” are the ones where a lot of plot happens because these developments are never interesting, well-written, or exciting to follow. It’s just hopping from one discovery to the other with no nuance and that’s what happened here. A lot of this is pretty bad, like Max inexplicably being able to remember every detail of Vecna’s world perfectly to the point that Nancy can rearrange Max’s drawings into Victor’s house. That’s so stupid and cheesy. Speaking of stupid and cheesy, that’s what all of the Nancy/Steve teasing feels like right now. It’s just a waste of time and uninteresting. The Russia story does not do much for me. The scenes in this episode are poor and I do not care since the conclusion is obvious. The plane fight and crash is laughably ridiculous, and they all should be dead. Hopper’s heartfelt speech doesn’t do much for me because it feels like a tacked on guilt story. El’s story suffers from the same problem of having an obvious conclusion. We know the secret that El has to uncover from her past, so there is no suspense or excitement. I’m just left to lose my patience as the show lazily meanders its way to an obvious conclusion. The Unknown: What is the monster from America? Is it a Demogorgon? What is the significance of Vecna’s clock? How about the spider jars? Why does Vecna kill from that one specific spot? How does this process of returning El’s powers work? We are already seeing it in action but I’m not sure how it’s happening. I thought it was supposed to take months. How will Jason react to Patrick’s death? Will this make him realize Eddie is innocent, or will he be more convinced of Eddie’s guilt? Best Moment: The sequence of El experiencing the same thing over and over. Character of the Episode: El. Conclusion: A frustrating episode that falls into the worst trappings of “Stranger Things”. Score: 50 Summary: Lucas reunites with the group. Nancy and Robin sneak into a mental asylum and speak with Victor. They are caught but they run away with the knowledge that music can save Max. Max makes letters for everyone she has to say things to. She speaks with Billy at his grave when Vecna attacks. Dustin, Steve, and Lucas play her favourite song and she is able to escape. Jonathan, Mike, and Will are under house arrest but the house is attacked by the military. They escape in Argyle’s car. Joyce meets Yuri as Hopper makes his escape. However, Yuri betrays Enzo and turns him in, capturing Joyce and Murray in the process.
The Good: Max has a really good episode as she stares down death. We get to see who she really is, and we even see her learn an important lesson about the value of reaching out to people while you’re still alive, which is something she definitely needed to learn. There are some good emotional scenes here, like the meetings with her mother and Billy. The climax of the episode becomes predictable in the end, but it’s still tense and exciting because it is directed and acted extremely well. Max surviving was a cheer-inducing moment that nicely concludes this story. Nancy and Robin are fun once again as they somehow manage to get the meeting with Victor. Victor’s story is horrifying and was a unique and engaging side story in the middle of the episode. Hopper’s escape was fun, and the Yuri twist at the end of the episode caught me off guard. Yuri’s demeanor is funny and it successfully lowered my guard to make this twist work. The shootout at the Byers’ house was exciting, and pulling off the oner was really impressive. Argyle continues to be a delight in every scene. The Bad: Again, the episode is too long. This has the necessary pieces to be great, but it is hampered by having so many storylines that have dragged out scenes. The experience is diminished by this. I am upset that the Hopper story is being dragged out even more. We know he will reunite with Joyce and there is nothing else that can surprise us along the way. I just want this aimless side story to resolve itself already. The cure to Vecna’s attack being music is a bit too convenient. The Unknown: Where will Jonathan, Will, Mike, and Argyle go now? Will Nancy and Robin be wanted for what they did? How will they get out of that situation? What happens now that Joyce and Murray are captured too? Is Victor’s house the same house that Vecna resides in in the Upside Down? Is Max safe from Vecna now? Why can’t he attack her again? Best Moment: Max escaping from Vecna was thrillingly tense and well put together. Character of the Episode: Max. Conclusion: An exciting and dramatic episode, even if it does feel overly long. Score: 66 Summary: Joyce and Murray go to Alaska. Hopper prepares a plan. El is arrested for what she did to Angela but she is pulled over by Dr. Owens who offers to get her powers back. The gang arrive at Fred’s crime scene where they meet with Nancy. Nancy and Robin investigate Victor Creel and discover that his family was killed by Vecna. Max, Steve, and Dustin break into the school to look at the counselor’s files. Max realizes that she is going to be the next victim. Lucas leaves Jason’s group.
The Good: This episode is really funny. There are lots of great comedy scenes, with a highlight being a Byers family dinner scene with Murray, which is great awkward humour. The rest of the episode utilizes character dynamics very well. We get plenty of great character interactions to keep things interesting, some old ones and some new ones too. From t e new ones, I’ll highlight Nancy and Robin’s story. I think it’s great to have two characters who don’t quite get along having a story together. It’s a unique dynamic. The reveal that Max is the next target was a great moment that raised the stakes significantly. The Bad: The plot development in this episode is classic 80s and fun to watch, but overly reliant on exposition. There also aren’t many surprises here, so the development isn’t that interesting. The Hopper story is progressing too slowly to be interesting. Nothing of note happens here. Jason’s group is boring. They are typical stupid jocks who do unrealistically terrible things. I’m still bothered by El’s story. The predictable result was for her to eventually get her powers back, and everything building up to this feels like a waste of time. More conflict between her and Mike does nothing for me. The Unknown: Will the military follow Dr. Owens to El? What is giving Vecna power? It seems like he has to be “fuelled” by something. How was he around back in 1959? Why was he dormant for so long after that? Will El be able to get her powers back? How will this happen? Did Lucas abandon his new friends to join the others? Best Moment: I’ll go with the funny dinner scene at the start of the episode. Lots of great awkward humour, which has become a staple of “Stranger Things”. Character of the Episode: Max. Conclusion: Another solid episode that hinges a lot on how funny it is. An enjoyable watch. Score: 60 Summary: Hopper has been captured and imprisoned in Russia. Joyce has been contacted by Enzo, a prison guard, who offers her a deal to save Hopper. She goes along with it. Max sees Chrissy’s body and tells Dustin that she suspects Eddie. Dustin goes to Steve and Robin, and the group find Eddie and he tells them what he saw, dubbing the new monster as Vecna. Mike arrives in California and goes on a date with El. Angela interrupts and bullies El until she snaps and smashes her head with a roller skate. Nancy and Fred investigate the murder to get a good story but Fred is attacked and killed by Vecna. Jason goes after Eddie for vengeance.
The Good: There’s some more fun stuff here. The fallout of Chrissy’s death gets the plot moving and we get some solid sequences in this episode. Fred is the next victim and the horror scenes are still effective. I particularly like how the Victor Creel story overlapped Fred’s experience. We haven’t seen much of Jonathan but his scene with Argyle was good comedy. Dustin is as great as ever as he immediately hops on the case. The Bad: While the scenes are all well made, several stories feel like filler at this point. Nancy and Jonathan don’t feel as important as they used to be, Joyce going after Hopper feels like an extended side story, and Steve and Robin feel like extraneous characters even though they are fun to watch together. This episode’s biggest fault is the Angela storyline, which is a cookie-cutter bully story with nothing interesting. There is plenty of dramatic exaggeration in these scenes and they do not work at all. I’m not at all interested in a Will/Mike conflict. It feels like the writers don’t know what to do with Will this season. Hopper’s survival feels really cheap. There was mystery built on how he survived, and the answer we’re given is that he just… survived. It’s absurd. The Unknown: Who was listening to the police reporting about Chrissy? How does Vecna choose his victims? Does he capitalize on past trauma? Would this make Max a possible candidate since she is still processing Billy’s death? What exactly do the Russians want from Hopper? Have they given up by imprisoning him? Will Joyce’s deal with Enzo go off without a hitch? Was it Hopper’s idea? Is there any substance to the Victor Creel story? Best Moment: Wayne’s story about Victor Creel was interesting to listen to. It’s neat to see how an average person would try to rationalize such a horrific sight. Character of the Episode: Nancy. Conclusion: Another decent episode, but this one was more flawed than the last with the same problems. Score: 54 Summary: A flashback shows Eleven murder many of the other child subjects in 1979. In the present, Will and El are adjusting to high school life. El is getting bullied by Angela. Joyce receives a doll in the mail and learns that Hopper is alive. Mike prepares to leave for California to meet El, and on his last day he finishes the school’s D&D campaign with Dustin, and the group’s leader Eddie. Lucas doesn’t attend and instead finds glory when he scores the winning goal for the school basketball team. Chrissy is having strange mental problems and goes to Eddie to get some drugs. At his house, she is brutally murdered by a new monster.
The Good: As always, the first episode of the season has some strong horror scenes. The opening and ending scenes are both unique, well produced, and very engaging. The horror in this series is always great. The show had fun reintroducing everyone and the scenes are mostly solid. Max’s grief stands out as she struggles to overcome her past trauma. I liked the intergroup conflict as Lucas finds himself preferring basketball to D&D, alienating Mike and Dustin. Eddie is a bit too much, but for now I will put him in The Good because he’s so damn fun. He’s funny, unpredictable, likeable, and entertaining. I enjoyed his presence. I liked the creativity that this episode had. Lots of clever editing and directing to make the most of the episode. The Bad: This was too long and that’s mainly because the episode is very slow. Some of the scenes here are frivolous (pretty much everything involving Steve/Robin and Nancy/Jonathan had no momentum or sense of relevance/direction), or overly stretched out (Joyce’s scenes, the needlessly stretched out D&D/basketball game scene). This show has always had extensive melodrama and that doesn’t change here. While the conflict between Lucas/the others is actually logical and has been set up, much of the rest feels overly dramatic and tacked on. El’s bullying for example is really bad to watch. The plot is uninspired and unoriginal, and it feels like it is adding nothing to the story. The Unknown: When did El kill everyone? Why didn’t she remember this? This feels like such a strange addition to the show. How did Hopper send the doll to Joyce? Why? What is this monster that killed Chrissy? How did it get to her? Why did it kill her? Who is next? Will Lucas choose his new friends over his old ones? Is Will gay? Who is that painting for? Best Moment: The ending sequence is superb, disgusting horror. Character of the Episode: Eddie. Conclusion: This was a pretty good season premiere, even if it was overly long and melodramatic at times. Score: 60 Summary: A new threat arrives in Hawkins: Vecna. He kills Chrissy and Eddie is framed for the murder. Dustin, Max, Steve, and Robin start investigating and eventually recruit Nancy when her partner Fred is also killed. They learn more information about Vecna and realize Max is his next victim. They discover that music gives her a way out and they save her using her favourite song. The group discovers a new gate in Hawkins and they hatch a plan to defeat Vecna. Meanwhile, El is bullied in LA and gets arrested after an outburst. She is then taken by Dr. Owens to restore her powers and she revisits her memories. Her memories reveal that Vecna is One, another test subject, and that El banished him to the Upside Down. El regains her powers and assists in the plan to fight Vecna. El manages to defeat Vecna, but Eddie is killed and Max is comatose. Vecna manages to open up an enormous gate in Hawkins despite being defeated. Meanwhile, Joyce learns that Hopper is alive and goes to Russia with Murray to save him. Hopper is in prison and makes a deal with Dmitri to escape, but the plan goes wrong. Joyce and Murray infiltrate the prison and save him.
The Good: Season 4 felt like a return to form for "Stranger Things" with horror and mystery once more taking center stage to make for the most engaging and interesting season since the first. Mystery and horror were what initially made this show so unique, so I was extremely pleased to see it take center stage again, at least in the Hawkins storyline. The deaths were all done in an unsettling and terrifying way to play up the horror, and there was a genuine mystery to uncover surrounding Vecna, his history, and his powers. Because of this, the story in Hawkins was easily the best part of the season, and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing everything unfold. As for the specific characters, Max's story was a definite stand-out. She's been one of the more forgettable new additions to the show, but her arc in this season was excellent. It was a powerful story about how easy it is to get lost in grief, and about the importance of staying open with the people that you are close to. It's an optimistic and beautiful story which allows Sadie Sink some time to shine, and nicely incorporates Lucas, giving him a greater purpose as her love interest to further the themes of the story. This is a big step up since in previous seasons Lucas and Max simply felt like an additional couple because the show had no idea what to do with these characters. This season gave Max and Lucas some great moments to shine. The episode "Dear Billy" was a stand-out for this story as it focused on Max's arc and featured a wonderfully tense scene as Max manages to escape from Vecna with her life in very real danger. Another highlight is the conclusion of Max's story. Max ending up comatose is a sad yet fitting conclusion for the season. Max has learned to value the people around her, and Lucas has stood by her ever since she almost died, but they don't get a happy ending. It's a win for Vecna, which creates a somber feeling of loss to conclude the season. It's a downer ending that sets up nicely for the final season. The other characters in Hawkins are a lot of fun too. Dustin, Steve, Nancy, and Robin are as fun as ever and I thoroughly enjoyed their interactions with each other. This is a good crew of protagonists to experience the mystery through. Nancy is clever and resourceful, Steve has heart and is unabashedly loyal, Dustin is the brains but also offers a lot of witty comedy, and Robin is the new recruit who is a bit of a wild card in terms of what she does and what she figures out. The characters play off of each other well and they are a good unit. But the standout character in my opinion is Eddie. Eddie isn't always there, but he is a breath of fresh air. He's portrayed well and is immediately likeable as a charismatic and unexpectedly well-rounded quirky character with a good character arc. Eddie is a good guy, but he starts the season running away instead of taking any risks, and as the season goes on, he gradually learns from everyone else about the value of being a hero. This leads to a great story in the season finale where Eddie decides that he is going to be a hero, and he gives his life to ensure Vecna's defeat. It's a simple arc, but effective mainly because of how well-written and well-cast Eddie was. The LA story isn't as effective as the one in Hawkins, but it has its moments. Specifically with El as she goes to recover her powers. This was always going to be her story for the season, and it was surprisingly engaging to experience El's suppressed memories, uncovering what exactly happened. I'll talk more about Ballard/Vecna later, and I'll instead focus on what this means for El as a character. The show teased that El's violent streak as we saw with Angela may be a lot more sinister than what we expected, and this story forced El to come to terms with who she really is. The twist is that it turns out that El actually doesn't have to accept that she's a violent brute, but to acknowledge that she is still a good person even if she happens to be violent at times. At heart, El is not a murderer, and it gives her more personal clarity when she realizes that, allowing her to confidently re-emerge with her powers. Another bit of depth to this story comes from El's relationship with Dr. Brenner. Brenner's return is a bit absurd (seriously, HOW is he alive?), but it is good to see the toxic nature of his relationship with El once again, emphasizing El's need to break away from any sort of relationship with him. Brenner's death scene is excellent because he does love El and he gives his life to save her, but El does not give him emotional satisfaction, because Brenner's love was misguided and he never cared about El as a person. Seeing El break free from his manipulations at the end was fitting and emotional. The rest of the LA story isn't much to write about, but I did like the introduction of Argyle, who offers some much-needed comic relief. He is the kind of character that could get tiresome extremely fast, but the show uses him sparingly and gets the most out of him. Now, I'm going to talk about Vecna, arguably the best thing about this fourth season. After three seasons of having monsters as the main villains, it is so refreshing to have an active character take over the role of the big bad. Vecna was fantastic in this role because it was immediately clear that he was more sentient than the Demorgorgon and Mind Flayer, making the character an interesting hook for the season. We spend much of the season gradually learning more and more about Vecna, until in the midseason finale we finally learn everything about him. And I won't lie, Vecna completely exceeded my expectations. The series of reveals about who he is was glorious, and I would be surprised if anybody watching managed to connect every single dot about who he is before that episode. Even with the reveals, what pleased me most was how directly connected Vecna was to El. This connection gives El a personal reason to take him down, given that she was the one who freed him and trapped him in the Upside Down. Furthermore, Vecna is extremely powerful and intimidating because of how unstoppable he is. He carries an enormous threat factor, and there is a palpable sense of danger when he is on screen. That's the sign of a good villain, one who is certainly worth building an entire season around. The decision to bring in Vecna as a villain is certainly one of the best writing decisions in this season, and I am excited to see where this character goes in season 5. The comedy and character interactions are a high point of this season. Almost every character is fun to watch, and there are plenty of laughs to go around in every episode. Whether it's Argyle being woefully uninformed, Dustin being a witty asshole, Robin getting freaked out, or something totally different, the show manages to make you laugh consistently. Comedy is an essential aspect of almost every TV show, and I think that "Stranger Things" nailed it in this season. The characters continue to develop fun relationships. While not every relationship is a winner, I did end up caring about a lot of the new connections in this season. Joyce teaming with Murray was lots of fun, Dustin's relationship with Eddie was a joy, and I liked the new connection between Nancy and Robin. This show always does a good job of making its characters connect with each other, and this fourth season is no exception to that. The presentation this season is better than it has ever been. Even with the excessive length, this season looks better than the previous three with hugely impressive special effects, tremendous editing, and memorable directing choices that gave this season some extra visual flair. I have no doubt that this is the best looking season of "Stranger Things", and every episode offers some sort of impressive looking sequence to watch. The Bad: This season's biggest problem is its length. Not that it's 9 episodes long, but that every episode is at least 60 minutes long, with several being much, much longer than that. The average episode is 75 minutes, and in some extreme cases, the episodes are even longer than that, with the season finale being nearly two and a half hours! This is way too much. TV shows are meant to be hour-long for a reason, because it is tough to craft engaging episode-long stories that can remain interesting for more than one hour. That is the problem that plagued "Stranger Things" this season. It was very rare that an episode in this season was consistently engaging for its entire runtime. Every episode had scenes that either went too long, or felt unnecessary to the show as a whole. This made it tougher to keep engaged with the story being told, and it brought down the quality of the season overall. Had the Duffer Brothers not overindulged into the story, this would have been a stronger season. One reason for this season being so long-winded is because the show is now bloated with characters. Every season introduces new characters, and that becomes a problem when the show is not removing characters at the same time. The result is that there are far too many characters who are being given storylines, leading to an excessive amount of storylines. Several characters felt extraneous this season. Robin feels like the odd character out in Hawkins because she isn't doing very much of note, and her main story is a romance that I'm not interested in. Steve and Nancy are teased heavily as well because the show is forced to give them a story. Meanwhile, the LA story suffers because nobody there is interesting. Jonathan, Will, and Mike all have nothing to do this season, and the characters are all spinning their wheels, making for a storyline that feels somewhat pointless overall. The worst offender is Will, whose whole story is bent on the fact that he may or may not be gay with a crush on Mike. The season spends nine episodes toeing around this, and doesn't even make any progress because it is never confirmed! This was immensely frustrating, and despite Noah Schnapp doing a really good job, he can't save a storyline that spends more time teasing than actively progressing. The worst result from having so many characters is that some storylines feel pointless, and as I mentioned before, that's exactly what happened. The LA story is the biggest example since nothing about it is important outside of El. I was always itching to get back to the main story whenever we spent time with the LA group. Even worse is the Russia storyline. Joyce reuniting with Hopper always should have been resolved in a single episode, but instead we ended up witnessing a season-long side story as Joyce saved Hopper. This story was nowhere near interesting enough to justify how much time was spent on it, and it had absolutely zero relevance to the main plot. Sure, there were some good scenes, but this story desperately needed to be condensed and streamlined because it was limited in storytelling, and uninteresting the entire way through. Much like with the LA storyline, I was always eager to get back to Hawkins whenever we spent time with Joyce, Murray, and Hopper. It's a bit of a shame because I did like Dmitri and Yuri as side characters, but we spent far too much time in this storyline for me to fully appreciate the few good things about it. This show has a bit of a problem with how it develops its plot. I noticed this about halfway through the season. It happens so often where the plot develops because a character intuitively happens to figure out exactly what they need to figure out to move on to the next situation. A lot happens because of coincidence and characters getting lucky, and when it keeps happening back to back, the plot becomes completely uninteresting and even frustrating. Its been a flaw in previous seasons, and it still is not fixed here. Best Episodes: E04 Dear Billy: This episode was powerful, mainly because of Max's excellent storyline as she stared down death. There was great suspense and emotion throughout this episode. E07 The Massacre at Hawkins Lab: One of the show's best ever episodes, mainly due to the superb Vecna reveal, and a surprisingly strong sequence of scenes in Russia. E08 Papa: A strong episode of set-up that was aided by the emotional significance of El finally standing up to Brenner. Worst Episodes: E02 Vecna's Curse: The second episode of the season was plagued by the silly Angela storyline, and the feeling that some of these side stories were pure filler. E05 The Nina Project: "Stranger Things" doesn't do well when it has episodes with limited character scenes and focuses on accelerated plot developments. This was one of those weaker episodes. E09 The Piggyback: This episode had good content, it was just way, way, way too long. It's a shame because the story was really good, I was just utterly exhausted by the time the episode ended. The execution let this down. Character of the Season: Eddie. Conclusion: Season 4 was a mixed season, like every season of "Stranger Things", but I think that it was easily the most enjoyable since the first. This season was ambitious, took risks, and had some really memorable moments. It did have the major flaw of being far too long and poorly paced, but if you can overlook that, almost everything here was really good and this season provided the exact sort of popcorn-flick entertainment that I'm looking for when watching a show like "Stranger Things". This season was never going to be great, or a masterpiece, or anything like that. But it was adequate entertainment and I have no regrets watching it. |
Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
Categories
All
|